A May date for Shanghai trade zone

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HONG KONG -- Specific policies for the special culture trade zone in Shanghai's Wai Gao Qiao will be announced in May, Ren Yi-biao, chairman of Shanghai Oriental Huiwen International Cultural Services Trading Co., told The Hollywood Reporter. An area in the free trade zone has been designated for the trade in cultural products.

The Shanghai Oriental Huiwen outfit is the operating company for the Wai Gao Qiao, the Shanghai international cultural service trade platform co-funded by the Shanghai municipal government and Shanghai's Pudong district government and established in September for the development of Wai Gao Qiao's content industry trade and market access.

For the past three years, the company has received a subsidy of 50 million yuan from the Chinese government to develop new channels in promoting cultural products. One of the companies exhibiting at the Hong Kong Filmart under the Oriental Huiwen umbrella, Shanghai New Culture Media Group, has four television series -- including "My Story in Barcelona," "Adventures in Shanghai" and "Plot" -- sold to Hong Kong International Co. for broadcast in Vietnam.

"Cultural industry is showing enormous growth amidst a time of economic recession: provinces and the central government are giving their support to the development of cultural industry," Ren said.

In 2008, boxoffice in China has increased by 888 million yuan ($130 million) from the previous year, according to State's Administration of Radio, Television and Film; trade in online games in China totaled in 18.3 billion yuan ($2.7 billion), marking an increase of 76.6%.